Dragon Age The Veilguard Criticism Thread (formerly Skepticism Thread) [Spoilers]

Honestly, you know the bit where we get zapped by Harbinger, well I reloaded that at least twice before the penny dropped that I hadn't messed up on my run but it always happened like that. Plus the first time I got killed by the minions because again I thought it was likely an intended game over screen for messing up the run, so I just stood there somewhat stupidly and didn't fire my gun.

I had started playing the retake earth section when I got home from work and was determined to finish it the same night but that was a big mistake because by the time I got to Star Kid I was out on my feet (but role playing an exhausted Shepard very effectively) and my brain was a fog. The brief exposition by the Star Kid in the original ending (before the extended cut) didn't make a lot of sense to me but I did recall sitting with Liara and seeing a bright light, so thought that was perhaps a clue. Why was destroying the Reapers the right hand, red path? Walk into the light Shepard, follow the straight path. So I did. Got disintegrated and then freaked out when I saw Joker's eyes. Was not a happy bunny. Went to bed fuming. Woke up next day and checked the boards. Bloody hell, that really was meant to happen. Why is that the ideal ending you only get if you max out on the readiness? So, I reloaded the last bit, and took red path.

Moral of that story, never play the ending if you are dog tired, particularly if there is a choice involved.

That list is very long. Impossibly long I'm afraid. To speak nothing of the elves and the rest of Thedas, my Dalish Inquisitor isn't big on forgiveness. And I like my eggs scrambled. 

In this case, tiredness wasn’t the only thing colouring things differently.

Sorry. Have no intention to derail thread, but couldn’t resist.

Personally I'm holding out hope on the next ME because of the lead writer. Mary DeMarle. Sure she's not Drew Karpyshyn, but she was the lead writer of Deus Ex, and the Guardians of the Galaxy game. And I enjoyed them both. If the ME team get rid of her then that's when my hope for the next ME will die. She's not a crazy activist writer like John Epler, or Patrick Weekes. Also I'm waiting for Exodus as well. So if ME fails, I've still got that Original BW team to fall back on with their new game.

Edit: As much as people like to say Veilguard will be the game that decides rather or not BW will live or die. I think that's false and it's actually the next ME that decides that. The fact that EA got the Lead writer of the Deus Ex franchise on board, The fact that the Next ME will not be using Frostbite engine, and the fact that they released a remaster of the trilogy. Leads me to believe they are banking on this next ME game. 

Don't Elves and Dwarves speak American and Humans speak British - while Qunari are a bit mixed up, but mostly American?

That is usually what I expect from the Dragon Age franchise accent-wise.

I can't get over how much DA4's news tanks the appeal of replayability

Companions all seemingly give identical dialogue so there's no reason to replay with different combos
The simplification of the combat system into the dps role with different coats of paint
The acknowledgement of the player's race seems even less frequent than Inquisition

And to top it all off, Corinne confirmed there's no plans for postgame DLC, so no Trespasser or Hakon equivalent.

I've been a fan of this series for over 10 years and it's upsetting to see how a combination of hubris, mismanagement, and apathy regarding the IP seems to have created this mess. I don't know whether to pity Mary Kirby and Kristjanson that they were fired, or feel happy for them that their names won't be associated with this company if this game ends up bombing.

Probably something like: "It was nice meeting you, Rook. But I have to go back to [LI name] now."

I have zero confidence it will be any more elaborate than that. The standard inquisitor starts with a Solas romance too.

Ah, sorry, I should have clarified I meant it should be the Inquisitor's role to forgive or kill Solas, not actually Rook's. Really can't wait to see if they cooked up some cool stuff for the Inquisitor or if it will be lackluster

While not a fan of Deus Ex, the Guardians game that came out recently is criminally underrated. It's a sold 7/10, and was a fun time, really! If she's the lead writer for both ME 4 and the Guardian game, that does give me some hope then.

I've said it before, but I wonder if the Inquisitor isn't going to betray Rook if they were romancing (or even looking to save) Solas. While I had zero attachment to my Inquisitor, I'm more upset that there's not an option to choose what their class/gender was. Seriously - the more BioWare themselves talk about this game, the more and more I don't want to go anywhere near it.

It is a matter of taste of course. However, I am personally not a big fan of Illuminati conspiracies as the main theme, which is a very primitive and easy way to write if the authors struggle with the nothing-to-say-on-their-own issues. Moreover, Mankind Divided has no proper ending due to again the author having nothing to say or other issues, IDK. GotG is an action comedy that is too full of casual banter at every corner that I personally find annoying and that buries everything else underneath this banter. It is occasionally funny but there is too much of it and it does not add to characters or their development and is a simple filler aka white noise for me. Fortunately, the game is fairly short. On the other hand, the gameplay in all three games she wrote is decent, which does not really tell anything about writing per se. So far, her writing is neither admirable nor terrible, around 6/10 IMO very subjectively.

As I see it, if there is a good plot and if there is not too much to write, she might do generally OK without spoiling the whole thing to the point of being boring or cringe. Expecting something decent just from the writing on its own might not be justified based on what has been produced by this point in time.

To be fair to them, in this instance they seem to have returned to their DAO roots. There only Zevran from Antiva plus Leliana and Riorden from Orlais had a distinctive accent. The elves were still American to a large extent and whilst the human natives of Ferelden did seem to be English it was pretty generic. Sten had a very distinctive voice in terms of pitch but not one that I placed in any particular region of the world.

Then in DA2 they really decided to mix things up a bit. Suddenly Starkhaven (or its ruling family) is Scottish even though the rest of the Freemarches isn't. Once again, the Qunari didn't have a distinctive regional accent from the real world but they did sound different to everyone else. The hilarious part was Merrill's accent because she was Welsh but the rest of her clan were Irish. I suppose this could be accounted for by the fact that they adopted her from a different clan as a young child but you would think she would have started sounding more like her new clan overt time. The reason the Devs gave for the difference, though, was the simple fact that they couldn't find enough actors with Welsh accents or who could effectively fake it, so they went with Irish instead. 

Then in DAI they had Briala also having an Irish tinge to her speech even though she was a city elf from Orlais. Still the rest of the Dalish had Irish accents. Then that agent of Solas in Trespasser had a Welsh accent (from what I recall), so now I'm thinking that perhaps Welsh accent equals ancient elf. It would seem that if the companion originated in Ferelden (Sera) then they had a strong northern England accent, whilst Thom Rainer had a British regional accent even though he didn't come from Ferelden. Of course, everyone from Orlais had a (fake) French accent. At least Josephine's accent was genuine. Dorian was funny because he did sound straight out of Eton (posh English private school) but I suppose that figures considering he is an Altus.

Anyway, I don't blame them for deciding to drop the accents for the most part because they were all over the place in reality. If the Dalish up north have different vallaslin, why would they have the same accent? However, it is funny that they insist on the strong accent still for the Antivan Crows but at least they are being consistent (suspect it has something to do with people finding it sexy).